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For news junkies, this will be a hectic week. By its end, Catholics may have a new pope, we may have a new UN ambassador, and both Kofi and his bestest buddy Jacques may suffer nervous breakdowns. Things are looking up because, while Volcker fiddles, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York are burning bad guys. Now all we need to find out are the names of Cooperating Witnesses One and Two, and the high-ranking UN officials whom they bribed for Saddam. CW1 and CW2 may be the first people who have earned the...

UNITED NATIONS - The embattled former director of the scandal ridden Iraq Oil for Food Program has sent a letter with an ultimatum to the office of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Benon Sevan, a veteran Cypriot diplomat, now the target of several U.S. and U.N. investigations, has sent Annan a "demand" that the world body pay his mounting legal bills "or else." According to Anann chief of staff Mark Malloch Brown, the letter, written by Sevan's legal team, carried an implied threat of new public disclosures regarding embezzlement in the now defunct oil for food program. Sevan has given no indication...

Characters from company's classic anime series "Robotech" to star along with PSAs from Sean Connery, Michael Douglas, Colin Farrell, Lenny Kravitz and other celebrities. LOS ANGELES ­ April 4, 2005 ­ In honor of the United Nations' 60th anniversary this year, the United Nations (UN) will debut a special Public Service Announcement (PSA) at MIP TV 2005. The 60-second spot, produced by Harmony Gold, is part of a broader effort to increase awareness of the work of the UN during this special period culminating with the 60th opening session of the UN General Assembly in the Fall. The unique element...

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is a man in search of a legacy. A legacy, however, is something you build up over time, like an edifice carefully constructed, action by action, decision by decision. Ultimately, it adds up to a record for history to judge. Unfortunately for Mr. Annan, there is a very real possibility that his legacy at the helm of the United Nations will be an organization that has been riddled with corruption, financial scandals, mismanagement and outright abuse. In New York on Monday, Mr. Annan took steps to leave a more positive legacy that he may be hoping...

The security of America and other wealthy countries will for the first time be declared a key priority for the United Nations under reforms designed to restore confidence in the crisis-ridden international body. The reforms, to be announced tomorrow by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, will be seen as a concession to Washington after repeated clashes with President George W Bush over US foreign policy, including the war in Iraq. The UN Secretariat promises a "real re-launch … a fundamental manifesto" after criticism of its performance since the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. Mark Malloch Brown,...

UNITED NATIONS - As the United Nations' chief of staff attempted a charm offensive on Capitol Hill yesterday, legislators signaled they will deepen and diversify the various investigations of the organization and said that American funds might be withheld if significant changes fail to materialize at Turtle Bay. Chief of Staff Mark Malloch Brown met with a host of American legislators in an attempt to convince Washington that findings of the Volcker committee, named by Secretary-General Annan to investigate wrongdoings in the oil-for-food program, are being taken seriously and that major reforms are afoot. Prior to chairing his own oil-for-food...

Per Fox News...

Per Foxnews Alert. A Multi-Million dollar scandal has been revealed to Foxnews by way of secret cables. There is also a missing man who revealed all this.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, visiting the United Nations, cautioned his Congressional colleagues to "take a deep breath" before making a political football out of the world body by withholding dues. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he disapproved of moves by several Republicans to withhold U.S. payments unless the world body fully cooperates with Congressional probes into the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq. "I think we ought to take a deep breath. This is not a time to make a political football out of the U.N.," Leahy told reporters after seeing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "We need them...

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan won a standing ovation from the U.N. General Assembly, a rare public display of support in response to recent calls for his resignation from several U.S. lawmakers. U.S. deputy ambassador Patrick Kennedy joined fellow diplomats as they rose to their feet Wednesday, despite President Bush's refusal to support the U.N. chief pending the results of an investigation into alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.[snip]"In 15 years I've spent at the United Nations, this is the second time that the General Assembly had a standing ovation for a leader," he said. The...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most people would say countries that tolerate slavery should be ineligible for membership on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Same goes for those guilty of crimes against humanity. The presumption is that egregious rights violators have no business on a commission whose prime purpose is supposed to be to protect rights. But in a report last week, a U.N. panel established by Secretary-General Kofi Annan rejected the notion that there should be any standards at all for membership on the Human Rights Commission. That means Sudan need not worry about losing its seat on the 53-member...

THE United Nations — desperately in need of some positive spin — is considering a ploy to steal some of the Norwegian Nobel thunder by launching its own annual peace prize. It doesn't hurt that the highly politicized Nobel Peace Prize has been bestowed to such unpeaceful types as Yasser Arafat and appeasers like Jimmy Carter. [snip]"In the face of widespread corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food program, weapons proliferation and terrorism, it strikes one as both tone-deaf and feckless of them even to have that on the table."

NOW THAT virtually all of official conservatism and the Republican legislative juggernaut have opened up on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, with President Bush's winking acquiescence, it's time to explore a simple question: Just what is it that the guy has done? The answer is nada. It turns out there is no evidence that he did anything while the notorious and corrupted oil-for-food humanitarian program was operating in Iraq during the 1990s and beyond. This lack of even a charge comes in the face of Annan's unequivocal denial that he ever had a single thing to do with, or any...

WASHINGTON — The son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan used his father's worldwide connections to wheel and deal with heads of state — at U.N. gatherings — on behalf of a controversial Swiss company that won a lucrative oil-for-food program contract, The Post has learned. The intense lobbying by Annan's 29-year old son, Kojo, was disclosed in a raft of internal company documents — including Kojo Annan's expense reports — that the company recently turned over to congressional committees under a subpoena. The memos provide the most revealing look to date at the business conflicts that are now at...

Ex-fugitive Marc Rich is suspected of having become one of Saddam Hussein's middlemen in Iraq's illegal oil trade just a month after he won a controversial pardon from former President Bill Clinton, a news report said. ABC News reported last night that Rich's alleged role in the growing UN oil-for-food scandal is under investigation by federal officials. Rich, who was pardoned by Clinton in January 2001, and several other prominent oil traders are suspected of making illegal kickbacks to Iraq to win the lucrative oil contracts, the network reported. The UN program was set up in 1996 to help Iraqis...

Is the UN corrupt? Are they on the take? Have they been skimming? Have they stolen billions and billions of dollars? The answer is yes. Did Kofi Anonymous seek UN employment to become inordinately wealthy or--as Fritz Holllings once suggested--just to get a square meal? It's time to ask the question: Is there any difference at all between the UN and the Mafia? Both organization spend money like sailors on Shore Leave, parade around in limousines, and ignore parking tickets. Appears similar, but if one looks closely, one will see that there is a difference. There are more parasites, pederasts,...

"Most Americans today believe slavery was outlawed in the United States many years ago, and they are correct. But they falsely believe that slavery doesn't exist in the United States and on that, they are sadly mistaken," said Wade Horn, assistant secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. During a news conference in Newark announcing the program, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said federal prosecutors are conducting several investigations into trafficking rings. Archbishop John Myers promised a new anti-trafficking clearinghouse in Newark. Victims are often smuggled into the U.S. from their home countries with the...

A Queens guru who's been accused of seducing women despite his vow of chastity has stacked U.N. headquarters with scores of followers in a bid to promote himself as an advocate for world peace, according to ex-cult members. As many as 60 U.N. clerical workers and mid-level managers are devotees of Sri Chinmoy, 73, a spiritual leader espousing a philosophy of vegetarianism, celibacy, meditation and extreme athletics, ex-members said. The guru, whose actual name is Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, presides over a worldwide spiritual empire from his home in Jamaica Estates. In recent years, the self-avowed chaste holy man has been...

THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE IRAQI MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS SAID HIS COUNTRY WILL SOON RELEASE TO THE IRAQI PRESS DOCUMENTS REVEALING THE NAMES OF COUNTRIES AND INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE 'OIL FOR FOOD' SCANDAL. (AL-SABAH AL-JADID, IRAQ, 7/6/04)